NORTHERN WISCONSIN - The Wisconsin Sierra Club, Sigurd Olson Environmental
Institute, and the Great Lakes Intertribal Council will sponsor five public
hearings this month regarding the health and environmental impacts of
the Navy's Project ELF submarine transmitter system near Clam Lake.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Project ELF Public Participation Project, as
the panels are dubbed, seeks to inform the public about the effects of
electromagnetic pollution on human health and the environment from the
Navy's Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) antennae.

The hearings are free and statements by concerned citizens are encouraged.
The hearings will be recorded and scientific experts will be available
to answer questions about electromagnetic pollution. The first and last
hearings will be broadcast live on WOJB-FM, (88.9).

The World Health Organization has listed ELF (extremely low frequency)
electromagnetic radiation as a "possible human carcinogen." More than
forty peer-reviewed medical studies now point to a link between electromagnetic
pollution and human cancers.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe has worked since May of 1998 toward reaching
an agreement with the Navy to study the impact of Project ELF, including
studies of breast cancer incidence, stray voltage, and the impact of electromagnetic
pollution on fish and wetlands.

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold and Representative Tammy Baldwin have
repeatedly introduced legislation in congress to close the Navy antennae,
starting with the ELF Termination Act bill in 1995. The current ELF Termination
Act amendments are S. 112 and HR 1160.

Area residents are urged to attend, question the experts and to testify
about their experiences with the effects of the Navy's Project ELF submarine
communications transmitter which operates near Clam Lake, Wisconsin. Two
experts will present information and be available at the hearings to answer
questions about Project ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) and electromagnetic
pollution.

Tribe asks military to study effects of communication system

ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) -- An American Indian tribe is asking the U.S. Navy
to study whether a military communications system has caused health and
environmental problems, but the Navy called such a study unnecessary.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa tribe of northwestern Wisconsin wants
to know if electromagnetic fields from the Navy' s Project ELF, an extremely
low frequency antenna -- are having any detrimental effects on the area.

The Navy uses the system near Clam Lake, and one like it in Michigan'
s Upper Peninsula, to communicate with submarines around the world.

The tribe will explain why it wants the study at five public meetings
in September and October, when it hopes to garner support for its request.
The Navy said it hasn' t decided whether to send a representative to those
meetings.

Scientists found no detrimental effects from the system' s electromagnetic
fields in previous studies of the Clam Lake site, but the tribe is asking
for more information.

The tribe believes at least $3 million worth of studies are needed
to make sure the U.S. Department of Defense is not violating the treaty
rights of Chippewa tribes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, said Dan
Peterson, coordinator of the Lac Courte Oreilles Department of Defense
Mitigation Project.

The tribe believes the project could pose health and safety dangers
to all northwestern Wisconsin residents, Peterson said.

The tribe wants the Navy to study the incidence of cancer among people
in four counties around the site and look at any stray current in the
area.

Five Great Lakes-area universities conducted $25 million worth of Navy-sponsored
studies between 1969 and 1993 and found no major effects from the ELF
system. Further testing would be a waste of money, Navy spokesman Richard
Williamson said.

An independent national science organization, the National Research
Council, reviewed those studies for the Navy. The organization found no
evidence of adverse effects from the system' s electromagnetic fields
but recommended that some of the data be analyzed again.

The Navy said it would not pursue further data analysis and has refuted
some of the tribe' s claims about why more tests are needed.

The Navy is set to upgrade the Clam Lake ELF site in the next few years
to make it safer and will continue to monitor related studies from around
the world, Williamson said.